“No, please. Don’t tell me that. Oh, that’s awful. Now listen, we have a bad history, but I never wish that on anyone.” – Dwyane Wade to Jackie McMullan

It was one of those games you figured Boston would win, despite everything. Despite their six-game losing streak. Despite Paul Pierce in the midst of a slump so ugly the only thing colder was the temperature outside the TD Garden. Despite Ray Allen’s return. Despite LeBron James putting up video game-like numbers. Sunday nearly harbored the feeling a heavyweight fighter throwing one last punch in one last fight with no clue what the future held.

Rajon Rondo’s ACL tear is impactful in more ways than I truly care to list. Here are the important ones:

Boston Moving Forward

The Celtics will always come to play Miami. That much is a given, but now the questions looms: where does Beantown go from here? More than a triple double waiting to happen, Rondo was everything that made Boston go. He directed the offense. He started fast breaks, and often times finished them. He put teammates in places they needed to be. Depending on what day of the week it is, Rondo could easily pass as the best quarterback in the region. Doc Rivers implies Boston isn’t dead, and something I’ve come to despise/respect about the Celtics over the years is they never roll over and wave the proverbial white flag. So they’ve at least earned that respect from me. One thing’s for sure though. Boston’s slim championship window never returned on the flight home from Atlanta.

Rondo’s Toughness

Maybe this isn’t a real reason, but even with a torn ACL, Rondo damn near tried to play through it on Sunday. Hell, on the play which allegedly ended his 2012-13 season, he didn’t even writhe in pain. He just shook it off and played 12 more minutes with his knee ligaments resembling sawdust. I’m now fully convinced Rajon was one of those kids who could hold his hand over a flame and not move.

A Growing Trend?

In less than 12 months, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, Lou Williams and now Rajon Rondo have all went down with season-ending, non-contact knee injuries. The scary thing is there’s nothing to prevent it either.

The All-Star Game

Just like that, my theory of the East’s starting five all secretly attempting to freeze each other out is dead. Kyrie Irving likely moves into Rondo’s starting slot with Brook Lopez being used to fill the vacancy. Life moves on, and indeed good news for both, but it’s hard to celebrate the nods given the circumstances involved. What sucks about all this is I was really hoping Rondo would have an assist where he butts the ball off his head.

Boston Moving Forward (Part Two)

Who fills the void left by Rondo? Can Paul Pierce legitimately play point forward? Does Courtney Lee step up? Does Boston bring Delonte West back? How serious are these Kyle Lowry speculations? Or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, does Danny Ainge just take a stick of C4 to the team and start the rebuilding process on the fly? In which case, did we just witness the end of an era before our very eyes?

The bottom line is so. Seeing a team you’re not a fan of struggle is great. Awesome, even. Especially when it benefits your interest. That’s the beauty of the marriage between sports and fan hood. Someone wins and someone loses. Nevertheless, no one profits with injuries. Not the franchise, the Association or fans.

Celtics fans now assume the familiar seat and agonizing process occupied by Bulls fans as they await the impending return of their own all-world point guard. People who hate the Celtics – like myself – now see a rivalry without one of its key components. Imagine Duke/UNC when Coach K retires. Imagine Braves/Mets this year without Chipper Jones. Imagine Ravens/Steelers next year sans Ray Lewis. It’s something like that. Meanwhile, the NBA loses an enigmatic, ultra competitive and exhilarating talent.

Following Kobe Bryant, Kendrick Perkins and LeBron, here’s to Rondo (and Lou Williams) making a speedy, but albeit lengthy recovery. Now Celtics fans are left to wonder, even when Rondo does return next year, is it to a team taking one last stab at playing in June? Or will have Ainge already tossed Boston’s name in the hat for the unofficial chase for Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins?

This is the thing; if the Celtics really try to “blow it up” who could they really get? Garnett has a “no trade” clause in his contract so he’d have to totally say “I fold, I want to move to another contending team”. I just can’t see one of the most prideful dudes in the league saying that. Paul Pierce is the best trade option for Boston but you’d have to bring back either a perennial star or good draft picks for him and I just can’t imagine a team doing that for a 35 year old veteran in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career. Moving one of the younger players makes no sense because they A) are showing promise to being future great working pieces if you have the right surrounding parts. B) have contracts that wouldn’t appeal to most teams in light of their production thus far. Blowing this team up may happen but when you look at the reality of the options, it’s too bleek to really feel good about the upside of that.

While watching the game I said to myself “if the Celtics win, they really might just TRY to push through the rest of the season with minimal changes”. They’ve won 2 of the 3 biggest games of the season without Rondo (OKC w/, Knicks, w/o & Heat w/o) and have won big playoff games without him with less surrounding talent. When Paul takes over as “Point Forward” for the C’s, the numbers are virtually identical. But the sample size is small because Rondo hasn’t been out for longer than a week or two at a time his whole career. This is why I say they will “try”. January has been a shitty for the Boston sports fan man. REAL shitty.

Danny won’t blow up the team. He’s almost as stubborn as Rondo. Idk if it’s the water out there or if like-minds just bonded like Voltron but the whole Celtics organization strikes me as one with a lot of heart and a mule’s attitude with regards to giving up, starting over, or going back. They’ll fight cause it’s all they know how to do.

Only Rondo would play through a torn ACL as if he didn’t notice. That kid is scary. Like, LaMilton from The Boondocks scary.

Don’t to be surprised if Ainge will try to blow up the team. He saw what happened when the original big 3 stay together too long. I don’t think he can get young talent and draft picks. But he can clear cap space

There isn’t a a true point on Boston besides Rondo. I mentioned the potential downfall of their offense back in the “Rondo MVP??” post. Paul can do it and has but even with that, the Celtics need some front court help. Even an average defender who has some height would work wonders right about now.

They say he hyper extended it in the game in Atlanta but now they say he tore his ACL there, my cousin brought it to my attention yesterday. We believe that he tore in the the damn shoot around to be honest. He was going in running plays then they called him over for a pregame interview and he complained about soreness, thats why they xrayed him and found the tear.